


Ain't A Curse If It Can't Be Broken

by Saucery



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Backstory for Seasons 3A and 3B, Bisexuality, Canon Compliant, Curse Breaking, Curses, Drama, Ensemble Cast, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Headcanon, Immobility, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Magic Made Them Do It, Multiple Bisexual Characters, Necessity is the Mother of Romantic and/or Sexual Epiphanies, Pining, Romance, Stiles Talks About His Feelings, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 12:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is under a curse. Only Stiles can break it.</p><p>Or, I take the "True Love's Kiss" trope and run with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't A Curse If It Can't Be Broken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosienotrose](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=rosienotrose).



> I’ve often been asked how I can happily ship Draeden and Stalia and _still_ believe Sterek is endgame.
> 
> This is how.

* * *

 

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Braeden swore, pacing restlessly in front of the couch where Derek lay motionless, as if in a deep sleep. “A kiss of true love? Really? That’s what’ll break the curse?”

“Well, this is a ten-year-old witch we’re dealing with,” Lydia pointed out. “She’s incredibly powerful, but she’s probably getting her ideas from Disney movies. Like _Frozen_.”

Scott blinked. “Didn’t that have, like, two sisters loving each other enough to break the curse?”

“Wonderful,” Malia muttered. “Do I need to hunt down incestuous lesbian sisters?”

“That’s not what they’re saying, Miss Literal,” Liam said. “Damn, why’d it have to be a malicious brat instead of a malicious demon? We can’t hurt kids. Can’t even threaten them.”

“It _was_ Derek frightening the girl that made her curse him,” Lydia said. “She wasn’t malicious; she was just acting in self-defense because an idiotic werewolf went fangy on her. She tried to lift the curse herself, remember? But apparently, even she couldn’t lift it. And what _can_ lift it is,” Lydia sighed, “impossible.”

“Why don’t you kiss him?” Kira asked Braeden. “Aren’t you guys dating?”

“Dating? I don’t do dating. And I definitely don’t love him. I mean, he’s a fabulous lay and a pretty decent shot, now that I’ve trained him on both counts, but I run a solo operation and I like it that way.”

“So, there are no... tender affections?” Kira said awkwardly, and winced at her own awkwardness.

“Affections?” Braeden’s expression softened as she looked down at Derek. “There’s a sort of fondness, I guess. A chemistry. But we both understand that I’ll move on to greener pastures when my job is done, and he’ll always stay in Beacon Hills. I’d call what we’ve got a friends with benefits situation.” She smirked. “With less friendship and more benefits.”

“If not you, then who?” Lydia said. “If family sufficed, we could’ve called Peter, but he can’t love anyone, let alone love them ‘truly’. And as far as I know, nobody else—”

“Ahem,” Stiles said, and everyone jumped in surprise, because he’d been quiet this whole time. Uncharacteristically quiet. “Maybe I should try.”

They all turned to gape at him.

Stiles fidgeted under their incredulous scrutiny, and scuffed his sneakers nervously against the loft’s floor. Finally, after a bout of intensely uncomfortable silence, he reiterated: “I just. I think I should try.”

“Since when?” Lydia demanded.

“Since a while ago, actually, when Braeden was talking about true love’s kiss, and—”

“No. Since when do you love Derek Hale? Or _think_ you love Derek Hale?”

“A little bit before he gave up on you,” Malia announced, and beamed, evidently proud of her inside knowledge. “And yep, Stiles is still carrying a candle for Derek. No, wait, a candle’s too small. An inferno?”

“Mal,” said Stiles, covering his now-red face with his hands and mumbling through them, “you’re not helping.”

“You bet I’m not fucking helping after you up and told me you were so sorry, but you just ‘didn’t feel that way’. About me, not about Derek,” Malia clarified to their stunned audience. “You’re goddamn lucky I haven’t skinned you like a rabbit and had you for dinner.”

Braeden coughed out a laugh. “You,” she said to Malia. “I like you. And your death threats.”

“Thanks.” Malia beamed more brightly. “Are you available, then? Because if you and Derek aren’t—”

“Ladies,” Stiles hissed, “focus. I’m about to attempt some serious curse-breaking.”

“How can you tell it’ll work?” Kira frowned in confusion. “Like, how do you know you love him for real?”

“If it ain’t love, what is it?” Stiles’s shoulders were hunched, as if he wanted to hide from his confession. “I didn’t get bitter when he turned me down six months ago. He said he wasn’t ready for a committed relationship, but he might be, after he dealt with the issues he needed to deal with. I got that. I didn’t push, although I could see that he wanted me back. That I could have him, if I took a step closer. If I touched him. If I—”

Stiles shook himself. “But I didn’t want him that way. It wouldn’t have been real. It wouldn’t have made him happy, and I... I want him to be happy.” Stiles smiled, a strained, crooked smile that made him appear older than he was. “I didn’t even go ballistic when he started sleeping with Braeden. A part of me did, I suppose, but the rest of me knew he didn’t belong to me, that he wasn’t—wasn’t my property, just because I’d declared how I felt. My feelings for him didn’t make him any less of his own person, and with all the crap that was going on in Beacon Hills, who _didn’t_ need to get laid? Good for him, I said to myself, though I only half-meant it. Good. For. Him.” Stiles shrugged. “Pathetic, huh?”

“Damn, kid,” Braeden said, wide-eyed. “I’m not going to apologize, ’cause I didn’t do anything to apologize for, but I’m not such a hardass that I can’t admit it was a shitty situation for you.”

Stiles waved off the non-apology. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I’d promised Derek that I wouldn’t wait for him, either, because he’d specifically asked me _not_ to wait for him, but I kind of... waited for him, anyhow. I’m still waiting. And I can’t—” Stiles’s voice broke “—I can’t stop.”

“You sure were trying to hit the brakes, with me,” Malia said. “For your information, I don’t appreciate being anyone’s braking system. You wanna stop feeling your feelings? Do it yourself.”

“Sorry,” Stiles croaked, and Malia ruffled his hair forgivingly.

“Eh, whatever. Plenty of fish in the sea. For me, not for you. Go get ’im, tiger.”

Lydia seemed doubtful. “What if it doesn’t succeed?”

“If it doesn’t, we’ll figure something else out,”  Liam said, looking to his Alpha for guidance. “Won’t we, Scott?”

“I trust Stiles,” Scott affirmed, slightly overwhelmed, but growing more confident with each word he spoke. “He wouldn’t say he felt, um, _that_ , if he didn’t genuinely feel it.”

“Or thought he felt it,” Kira said, but Malia just sniffed the air and nodded.

“Nah, he feels it. I can smell it.”

“So can I.” Scott grinned at Stiles. “Well, bro? You gonna do it, or are you gonna keep chickening out?”

Stiles didn’t scowl, like he usually did when Scott dared him. Instead, he settled next to Derek on the couch, and gazed at Derek with a strange, brittle longing. “I’m doing it. I could just be delusional, but it’s… it’s like he’s somewhere in there, calling for me.” He cupped Derek’s head with his trembling fingers.

The entire room held its breath.

“You stubborn bastard,” Stiles whispered, as if Derek could hear him. “You had to get cursed for this to happen. Can you believe it? This is my first kiss with you, and you aren’t even here for it.”

Slowly, he leaned down to kiss Derek, as gently as he could.

A second passed. And another. And another.

Stiles withdrew at last, stroking the hair away from Derek’s forehead.

“You better wake up,” Stiles said, shakily, “or I’ll lose major credibility.”

And then, it happened.

Derek’s eyes opened, and immediately met Stiles’s, like Derek _had_ been able to hear him, after all.

“I was here for it,” he rasped, his vocal chords hoarse with disuse.

“Oh,” said Stiles, staring at him. “Which part?”

“The kissing part, you idiot.” Derek got up, gingerly, like he wasn’t certain his body would cooperate with him, after days of immobility. He winced when his muscles complained.

“And the part before that?”

“That, too.”

“And the part before—”

“Stiles,” Derek huffed. “I heard everything.”

“Oh,” Stiles repeated.

“Yeah, _oh_. Mind getting off the couch so I can stand?”

Stiles scrambled off the couch, but his movements were jerky and uncoordinated, like a puppet’s. He was blushing hotly, and he tripped over his own feet and almost fell, except that Derek’s hand shot out to catch his arm.

But he didn’t stop with catching Stiles’s arm. He reeled Stiles _in_ , until he was the one kissing Stiles, and he kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him.

The minutes passed.

Liam began to look traumatized. Kira patted his arm comfortingly.

Scott cleared his throat. “We should, er. I think we should leave,” he said, self-consciously.

“Yes, we should.” Lydia rolled her eyes, although she was visibly relieved. “What _morons_ , honestly.”

“You got that right,” Malia said, and Braden stifled more laughter.

“Let’s leave the lovebirds to it,” she said, and hooked her arm through Malia’s on their way out. “You were saying…”

 

* * *

**fin.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Like my writing? Want updates and sneak previews? Follow me on [Tumblr](http://saucefactory.tumblr.com/)!


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